It's apartheid as usual for big business

At the risk of generalising, I think big business in this country has neither love nor respect for people, especially those of African descent. It does not treat them with dignity or justice.

In fact, the oppression and exploitation of the majority in this country is NOT committed by the ANC government but big business.
The fact of the matter is that 17 years into freedom and democracy with human rights enshrined in the Constitution, many African people are oppressed and exploited.

And don’t you dare tell me that this is because of the ANC government or Nelson Mandela.

Of course, yes, the government can straighten its back and demand that big business redistribute or nationalise the wealth of this country to promote social justice and equality.

I don’t know why they have not put that on the table yet but we sure are running out of time.

You see, the conditions under which the majority of the poor, unemployed and hopeless languish is not the creation of the ANC government.

These conditions were created by the apartheid regime with its cohort, big business, which was a major partner in that unjust enterprise.

The biggest challenge today is not how we get the ANC government to deliver, for God and the ancestors know that despite the rampant corruption and cronyism, they are doing their best.

Instead, the biggest challenge is how do we get the ANC government or even the poor people of this country to shake big business out of its complacency and white arrogance?

When you closely look at the dehumanisation and degradation of the African majority, we have to acknowledge the ways in which big business plays a dominant and systematised role.

It would seem that the agenda of big business is to perpetrate the oppression and exploitation of the African majority to protect and preserve their monopoly over the wealth of this country.

And they do this by keeping African people, especially the working poor, deeply traumatised and made to feel that without the little crumbs they get from private corporations they would be as good as dead.

If you drive in the streets of this country, it is easy to see loads of black men, for instance, over-loaded at the back of a truck like cattle.

These men will, unavoidably, be workers for big farmers, super-markets, constructions companies or any other big corporate.

But just by merely looking at them as they sit huddled together like cattle to a slaughter house, you can see and feel the helplessness they are trapped in.

What I mean, here, is that big Business is not doing its thing in a way that can easily convince one that the ideals and principles enshrined in the Constitution mean anything to them.

And yet the conduct of big business, just like the government or labour, has to be guided by what is in the Constitution.

Not only the unions but the church, individuals and other NGOs need to organise against such blatant oppression and to speak out against the monopolisation of wealth in this country.

This economic injustice, and not what the ANC does, is what puts our lives and the future of our children in jeopardy in this country.

It is economic injustice more than the lack of the right to vote that, throughout the ages, is the mark of oppression in the lives of the African majority in this country.

It is time that government made it a crime for big business to build sub-standard houses for the poor or over-charge for building roads and other infrastructure, for instance, just so that they can make a profit.

You call the South African private sector a great “success” story? For what? Not only did these guys benefit from apartheid but they are NOT coming to the party when it comes to implementating the ideals and principles enshrined in the greatest Constitution in the world.

If we want great success, it’s time we measured it less by the profits a corporation makes but by critically examining the role it plays to restore the dignity and respect of ordinary folks.

We should not think that just because some chief executive earns R50 million a year then his company is successful.
The question is: what have you done to improve the lives of ordinary citizens of this country?

This article was published in the Daily Dispatch on March 3 2011